Storm damage is seen after Hurricane Michael October 10, 2018 in Panama City, Florida.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

The storm moved fast and many people didn’t have time to evacuate as the tropical depression formed over the weekend and strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane by Tuesday. It morphed into a fierce Category 4 by the time it came ashore near Mexico Beach, Florida on Wednesday afternoon, with wind speeds of 250 km/h. Just shy of a Category 5 storm, Michael had become the most powerful hurricane on record to hit Florida’s Panhandle.

Based on barometric pressure, Michael was also the third most powerful hurricane to ever hit the U.S. mainland, behind the Labor Day storm of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969.

Josh Morgerman, a well-known storm chaser, tweeted, “It’s hard to convey in words the scale of the catastrophe in Panama City. The whole city looks like a nuke was dropped on it. I’m literally shocked at the scale of the destruction.”

Though the storm has now weakened, it is continuing on a dangerous path across the southeast states. The National Hurricane Centre warned of possible spinoff tornadoes and heavy rains in Alabama and Georgia, before the storm heads for South Carolina, which were soaked by Hurricane Florence in September.

Haley Nelson inspects damages to her family properties in the Panama City, Fla., spring field area after Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida’s Panhandle on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018.Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via AP